Much of Eastern philosophy is centered on the concept of harmony expressed by yin (light) and
yang (dark), that is, a part of day or light is always present in the darkness of night, as is the
reverse. I like to think of rock quartz crystal as a metaphor for yin-yang as crystal (lightness)
occurs in the darkness of our earth's underbelly. To further extend this metaphor, I view
crystal as my personal symbol for the special light of enlightenment, new ideas, and creativity
that for me occurs most frequently during the darkness of the night, only to wait patiently
before finding its ultimate way into the brightness of daylight.

This is why I incorporate quartz crystal into so many of my designs. The presence of quartz is
intended to represent the clarity and brightness we can seek from all of our life experiences. It
is this clarity that leads to ideas, and our most precious ability to gain insights from all that we
do. This distinctly human ability for heightened consciousness allows us to draw insights, and
know what we know as we grow our personal wisdom. All this, in turn, strengthens our inner
foundation for good future decision-making and it is always through quality decision-making
that we create and live out the life of our dreams.

Gemstone Metaphors

Throughout history, gemstones have come to be associated with special meanings. For example jade is associated with the human value of gentleness, amethyst with royalty, quartz with insight. I often draw on these traditional meanings when writing the story cards that accompany my designs.

But in truth any one of us can make-up associations. Once again, this is because, as humans, we
possess such great brain capacity for higher consciousness. Used, in good faith, to provide
stimulus for our imaginations and dreams, these metaphoric associations of gems with human
traits and talents, are both a fun and an effective way to help us remember what's important in
our lives. Should you not find my messages about gemstones and symbols useful – go ahead
and feel free to make up your own. Be creative and allow the natural, exquisite beauty of
minerals to stimulate your thinking in ways that will help you find your life-long dreams.

How We Affect Gemstones

I view gems as reflective and affirming of biological life by way of contrast. Natural minerals are inert, that is, they are unable to catalyze CHEMICAL reactions on their own. In other words, minerals are REFLECTIVE of what happens in their external surroundings. Created by heat and pressure, natural minerals remain as reflections of the temperature of their current environment.

Place a mineral rock in a heated oven and in a relatively short time the rock will get hot, but only as hot as the oven’s temperature. It just happens that most often we encounter rocks in places that are usually cooler than the temperature of the human body. If a gemstone is sitting in your home, it will typically feel cool to touch. Hold a mineral in your hand for a period of minutes or wear a necklace made of natural minerals for hours and you will find that you can literally heat up the rock with your own personal energy which is emitted from your body in the form of heat, that is electromagnetic radiation (infrared wavelengths that are not visible to the human eye).

Life-Affirming Energy

All human beings emit energy in the form of heat, and the act of heating a mineral held in your hand affirms that you are indeed alive. You have radiated sufficient heat off your body to raise the temperature of an inert and inanimate object. What a terrific and easy way to prove just how powerful a living, breathing human body is.

Understanding Heat as a Symbol for Energy

If we are the source of heat for the rock, then the heat that the rock gives off is reflective of the
fact that we use energy just to exist as an organism, that is, just to stay alive. All biological life
uses up energy in order to carry on the business of living, and this baseline of energy usage
happens whether or not we engage in any sort of activity. Energy is therefore the life-force of
every living thing, and according the Fourth Law of Thermo- dynamics, that is the Law of
Entropy, we need a certain amount of energy to just exist, even when we are sound asleep. All
energy used to accomplish activity, whether it is physical - such as causing muscles to contract
and relax so we can walk or run - or the mental activity of thinking which causes neurotransmitters
to swim the channels between the synapses of our neurons, is an additional
energy expenditure.

Use Quartz Crystal as a Daily Reminder

By incorporating natural minerals into our lives, we can use them as external symbols for all the energy that is continually being expended inside our bodies. The more we train ourselves to think about energy whenever we see these minerals, the more sensitive we can be to how much energy remains for our discretionary usage. According to the law of entropy, your discretionary energy is what's left after deducting the cost of energy that is used to keep you alive. The total amount of energy needed to keep you alive does vary, so that when you are out in cold weather your body will automatically spend more energy to keep you going, compared to what you might expend in a mild climate.

Make Conscious Decisions About Personal Energy

The more mindful we become of our total energy, the greater charge we can take for making
decisions over how best to apply discretionary energy. Learning how to restore ourselves
whenever reserves are low, as well as how to purposefully apply our energy in ways that
accomplish the most for the least amount of energy used, are aspects of energy management
that we can do something about. This process again becomes a manifestation of our human
ability for heightened consciousness. So when your Mom told you to put on your coat because
it's cold outside, from a theoretical perspective, she was saying that you will have more energy
available to do what you want, if you minimize the energy lost to shivering.

This isn't rocket science, though it may sound like it is. Just know that whenever you decide on
a particular course of action you are also making a conscious decision about how your life-force
energy is applied. For your energy is not infinite, but rather a defined quantity at any given
point in time which can be wasted, or applied thoughtfully and purposefully.

Energy-Stress Cycle

If you find yourself running out of energy for the most important actions you really want to
accomplish, stress is going to mount from the build-up of your unfulfilled desires. But stress
impacts your body systems so changes like rising blood pressure and heart rate increase that
amount of energy you need to stay alive. Now you have even less energy to allocate than when
you first ran out of energy. That's why stress creates a vicious cycle of energy drain because it
takes increasing amounts of energy just to keep you in business as a human being.

There are many excellent stress reduction techniques available which work to help you prevent
the physiological effects of stress. Using TRULYHUMANmedallions as a relaxation tool also
follows this approach. But you can also take a head-on stance that restructures your daily
routine and interactions with others, in ways that cut energy loss.

Charting Energy Waste on a Daily Basis

If you want to take greater charge of your energy, then simply examine all the ways you have
used energy during the course of a day. Make a time chart of your activities. Do this using a
piece of paper on which you mark out all your waking hours in the day, leaving space for you to
record observations for every hour in the day. Then as you proceed through your day, from the
moment you get up in the morning, to the time you fall asleep, evaluating how your personal
energy has been spent. Identify every time that energy is spent doing something that is really
unnecessary or being accomplished inefficiently. Mark on the chart what you did and how long
it took. Be very alert to the fact that thinking and talking consumes energy, so if you are
"spinning your wheels" or gabbing or texting more than is absolutely necessary, you need to
mark this down on your evaluation as well. Honesty is absolutely essential for this to work.

Repeat this process for a few days, then spread out all your sheets of paper. Look for patterns
of energy wasting activities, then make a plan to cut out the waste. Soon, you will find that
step by step you really can recover energy for the things you need to do. And the real bonus is
the when you do more of what matters, your stress level will likely decrease. If you think this
technique is crazy, you need to know that it is simply an adaption of the proven time-motion
studies used by industrial engineers to find ways to make products more efficiently.

I really do wear quartz crystal on a daily basis, most often in the form of one of my
ENERGYbracelets. When I look at it, I use the bracelet to trigger an evaluation of what I am
doing in terms of the total energy and what needs to happen that day. You can learn to do this
too. As the natural twist and turns in your day arise you will begin to making better, more
conscious decisions about when to say "yes" and when to say "no." It takes personal courage to
do this, but once accomplished, you'll be well on your way to doing more of what you are
meant to do in life.